Chemical Physics Letters 413 (2005) 6–9
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Synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon molecular sieve and
its adsorption capacity for H , N , O , CH and CO
2
2
2
4
2
a,
a
a
a
b
b
*
Li Zhou , Xiuwu Liu , Jingwen Li , Ning Wang , Zhen Wang , Yaping Zhou
a
High Pressure Adsorption Laboratory (State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology,
2 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
9
Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
b
Received 1 June 2005; in final form 13 July 2005
Available online 8 August 2005
Abstract
Ordered mesoporous carbon is a recently developed material. To test its potential application for adsorption, such a material was
synthesized using silica SBA-15 as the template and sucrose as the carbon source. The ordered structure and the mesopore dimen-
sion of the material were proven with XRD, SEM and TEM examinations. Adsorption data of H
ordered mesoporous carbon were collected with a typical volumetric method for a pressure range up to 11 MPa. Potential applica-
tion for the separation of CO –CH –air mixture was indicated.
Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 2 2 4 2
, N , O , CH and CO on the
2
4
1
. Introduction
meric alky-ethylene oxide surfactant (Pluronic P123)
was used as the structure-directing agent and tetraethyl
orthosilicate (TEOS) of analysis grade was used as the sil-
ica source. After filtration and drying, the as-synthesized
product was calcinated at 823 K to obtain the SBA-15
structure. Using SBA-15 as the template and sucrose as
the carbon source, the carbon replica was produced.
The quantity ratio of sucrose to the silica SBA-15 (C/Si)
was kept at 1.25. The as-synthesized product was heated
in vacuum to 1173 K with a heating rate of 5 K/min to
complete the carbonization of sucrose. The silica template
was washed out with 1 M NaOH (in solution of 50% eth-
anol in water) at temperature 373 K. The template-free
carbon product thus obtained was filtered, washed with
ethanol, and dried at 393 K. The carbon material ob-
tained was indeed CMK-3-1.25 according to the conven-
tional nomination rule and the initial C/Si ratio.
Ordered mesoporous material has been recently devel-
oped [1–3]. This kind of material attracted much research
interest on its potential application due to the favorable
property: the large pore volume, high specific surface
area, high thermal stability, high stability in strong acids
and bases, high mechanical stability, chemical inertness,
solidity, and the ordered mesopore structure [4–10]. To
further test the potential usage of the material for
adsorptive storage of hydrogen and methane, and for
the separation of gas mixtures, especially those of air
with carbon dioxide and methane, based on adsorption,
such a material was synthesized, and adsorption iso-
therms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, methane and car-
bon dioxide on the material were collected.
The synthesized carbon material was examined by
small angle X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron
microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope
2
. Experiment
SBA-15 silica with 2-dimensional ordered channels
(TEM) and the adsorption of nitrogen at 77 K, from
was synthesized in acidic condition. A non-ionic oligo-
which the specific surface area, pore volume and pore
size distribution was determined based on the BET
[11] and BJH [12] theory.
*
0
009-2614/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cplett.2005.07.048